by TW Gallier
I didn't want to fire a shot. They might hear it down on the airfield. I didn't know what we'd do if denied the hilltop. The whole mission was in jeopardy.
Chapter 11
Jenny
Sitting against the back of the cage, I held Spooky tightly and rocked. She'd finally fallen asleep after a little episode. Poor thing missed her parents so much it broke my heart. Harlan was snuggled up next to me on the left, with Timmy on my right. Other mothers were scattered about holding their children.
"I'm hungry, Mommy," Harlan whisper. "My tummy hurts."
"I know, sweetie," I said, eyes burning.
Someone knocked on the door up front. Sergeant Coleman headed over to check it out. I glared daggers at him. All of those soldiers were just evil.
"When are we going to eat?" Timmy asked.
"Soon. I promise," I replied.
My body tensed up and ached when I thought about it. The others were right. We didn't have a choice, but I'd been able to keep everyone but Fiona out of the soldiers' damned beds. But for what? Self-esteem? Pride? Shame?
The door opened, and Fiona stepped inside. My breath caught and my heart hammered. I swear, our eyes locked even at that distance. Fiona looked nervous and unsure as she headed toward our cage, followed by her small escort of two soldiers.
I was downright scared.
Her heels echoed in the cavernous hangar. They sounded ominous to me. Would I follow her out of the hangar in shoes like that? Wearing lacy lingerie and ready to sell myself for a couple meals a day?
Easing Spooky off my lap, trying to not wake her, I steeled myself for what was about to go down. Other women were already moving toward the door. Another guard came around to watch, while Coleman led the newcomers to our cage. I quickly walked over to the door.
"Hi, Fiona," I said. "What's going on?"
She glanced at Sergeant Foster, who nodded at her. Fiona turned back to us and looked me in the eyes. She looked more resolute than anything else.
"They sent you back to try and convince us to follow your lead," I said.
She bit her lip and nodded. "Yes. It's not that bad. And I get all I can eat, too."
I held my tongue. I didn't really want to know what all she'd done, or with how many, to earn that food. She looked amazing, and I didn't see any bruises or any other injuries. That teddy didn't cover much.
"I promise, I wouldn't lie to you," Fiona said. "I've had a full night with the guys. They're actually very polite and gentle." I gave her a doubtful look. "Besides, it's just sex. And they've agreed to feed your children right away if you agree."
Several of us groaned, and I was one of them.
"Is your pride more important than your children?" Coleman asked.
The only soldier staring at me more intensely than Sergeant Coleman was Sergeant Foster. That pig-faced bastard had a rather vicious cast to his face, too. They had us where they wanted us, and knew it. It just made my decision all the harder.
"We don't have a choice," Sonya said, trying to sound reasonable, but her voice broke.
Several others voiced their agreement. I got chills, and then Coleman caught my eyes and held them. My insides began to tingle.
Oh, God, help me.
Foster must've noticed my defenses crumbling. He began to leer as his eyes raked my body. That helped me shore up my emotional walls, and ignited anger.
"So all we have to do is whore ourselves and everything will be all right," I sneered.
Fiona, at least, had the good graces to blush. She nodded, eyes dropping to the floor as tears rolled down her cheeks. I looked at Kate, who nodded, and then Selma and Sonya, who also looked resigned and nodded.
I signed gustily, heart race a mile a minute. It was mid to late afternoon. If we held out a few more hours, they would hit us up to submit until tomorrow. But why wait? Would surrendering my body to them be easier tomorrow?
"Give us a moment to discuss it," I said.
"Why?" Sergeant Foster demanded. "I can see that you're the lone holdout. I don't know why the other women care what you think, but it's fine if you want to hold out. At least let them do what is right for them and their children."
"Jenny!" Coleman shouted.
I jumped, eyes huge. He scared me more than any of them. I'd almost given myself to him the day before. If he'd played me just a little nicer…
He pressed up against the door. "Come here."
I shook my head. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't stop shaking.
"Come. Here. Now."
He made me feel so small and vulnerable. I dropped my eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly stepped up to the door. Terrible visions filled my too fertile mind. Me with him. Me with Foster. Me with every damned one of them. I wanted to run away, but there wasn't anywhere to run. Then anger flared, and I wanted to punch him, kick him in the balls, do anything to hurt him like he was going to hurt my heart.
"I can be nice, Jenny," he whispered, almost seductively. "If you're nice to me." He pushed his finger though the mesh. "Kiss it, Jenny. Show me how nice you can be."
My head spun out of control. I felt woozy, but I stood my ground.
Coleman caught and held my eyes. Our gaze was intense and made my insides ache. I lost the ability to breath for a moment and I couldn't get the thought out of my mind that I was about to make a big mistake.
"Are you ready to do the right thing for your children?" he asked softly.
I nodded. I didn't think any further about it. If I did, I wouldn't be able to go through with it. Just do it and hope it gets easier with time.
Coleman quickly unlocked the door. I tried to turn back to my children to tell them Mommy had to go away for a short time, but Sergeant Coleman didn't let me. He grabbed my right arm and yanked me out. Before I knew it, he had me pressed up against the cage while he kissed my neck and cheek.
"Please, just give me a second," I said, moving my face back and forth to avoid his lips. My hands were pressed against his chest trying to push him away, while he had one hand on my butt and the other on a breast. "I need to – "
"No. You need to relax and do what you're told," he said.
His hand came off my butt, grabbed the back of my head, and then he kissed me. That bastard claimed my lips in a long, deep kiss. I froze.
"Let's go," Coleman said.
He backed away, grabbed my arm, and started dragging me towards the back of the hangar. I remembered when the guards took Fiona back there. They kept her there a long time, and she came out looking exhausted and discombobulated. I knew what was about to happen. It was inevitable, but…
"No!" I cried, pulling free. Coleman turned on me, eyes full of rage. Other guards turned their weapons on me. "Wait. I want to talk to Colonel Ritter."
Coleman shoved me against the cage for the newest arrivals. Those women crowded up on the other side and shouted threats and warnings at him while banging on the cage wall. He grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanked my head back, and then his other hand grabbed my jaw. He squeezed my jaw until I cried out in pain. Coleman's angry face pressed in so close our noses touched.
"The Old Man doesn't talk to bitches like you."
"Not true," I squeaked out. I hated how terrified I was at the moment. "He promised to speak to me again. If I can't convince him to be reasonable, then you'll have me. We both know it. And I promise not to fight you anymore."
He looked at Foster, who shrugged. The colonel never promised to speak to me again, but they didn't know that. I was about to find out if they feared Colonel Ritter enough to at least ask him if he'd see me, or take me anyway and hope for the best.
Chapter 12
Roger
I studied the two Humvees and their crews a little longer. The soldiers parked at the bend in the road that directly overlooked the Cincinnati Municipal Airport - Lunken Field. The airfield was to their southeast. They had all dismounted and were sitting together on the steps down to a viewing area below the road. The soldiers looked overconfident and had dropped their guard.
Worse, they were clustered together while eating and joking around.
We quietly shed our burdens and left the .50 Cals in the woods up the road. I allowed TareBear, Jed, and Michael to move into position on the soldier's right flank. The trees and underbrush wasn't cleared out over there, and they could get within a hundred feet. From that spot the fire team could kill them all in a few short bursts of their M-249.
While waiting for the fire team, I explained in excruciating detail what I wanted from each of the remaining men. I had confidence in my people, but the bikers were an unknown quantity. Most were ex-military, though some were Navy and not as familiar with such tactics, but being bikers I assumed they could kick butt big time.
Everyone from my group had machetes. Not so with the bikers, but they had axes, baseball bats, and one of them had a real sword.
I could see it starting to get darker by the time we finally moved out. I couldn't see it, but the sun had to be low on the horizon. Alms Park was heavily wooded. There were swings and picnic tables scattered among the trees. The grass was high from a month without being mowed.
I crept forward with my machete in hand, listening intently to the soldiers. They continued to sound relaxed and carefree. I moved up behind the Humvees. I led men through the middle of the two vehicles, while Mike led more men to my right and Charlie leading his small team to my left. I had Terrel and Vince slip silently up behind the Humvee's .50 Cals. If all went wrong, they could put a quick end to the fight.
When I saw two of the soldiers stand up and stretch, I waved everyone forward into the attack. We rushed at them without a word until the last moment.
"Die, rapists!" one of the bikers shouted. Chuck brought his bat down atop the head of a soldier, crushing the man's skull. "Ha-ha!"
My machete split a skull, and lodged deep inside the soldier. Releasing it, I picked up the dead soldier's rifle and used it like a club to smash in the face of the man next to him. We fell upon them so fast only a single soldier escaped the initial carnage. Charlie ran him down and sank his machete deep into the fleeing soldier's neck before the guy could reach the treeline below us.
"That felt good," Chuck said. He grinned at me. "And we got two more .50 Cals to light them up with, too."
The bikers quickly stripped the dead of all useful items. They loaded the captured weapons into the Humvees. It went without saying that they'd keep the Humvees.
Since we didn't have enough men to carry the tripods for the .50 Cals, Mike, Charlie, and TareBear started gathering materials to make mounts for them. The two on the Humvees were perfect for our attack. Unfortunately, I'd have to surrender two more bikers to man the captured .50 Cals. Destroying the helicopters was paramount if we were all to escape after the rescue.
"Are you good, Chuck?" I asked.
He was in charge of the .50 Cal fire team. It was just the seven men, with no one helping or defending them. One man per machine gun. That was all we could spare.
"We're good," he said. "We'll tear those boys a new asshole. You just make sure you get all our women and children."
"You know where to go once the helicopters are all destroyed," TareBear said. "Or you run out of ammo. Good luck."
I estimated we were between eight hundred and a thousand feet from the airfield. Trees and the hill blocked my view of the perimeter. The woods were pretty dense on the hillside below the park. We hurried downhill in two lines. I led Charlie, Mike, Terrel, and Vince. TareBear lead Jed, Paul, and Michael.
It didn't take long to reach Columbia, and then Eastern Avenue below that. I got my first tentative looks at the zombies massed around the airfield's perimeter after was crossed Eastern. And then we stopped and gawked at the edge of the rail road tracks.
"Holy shit," Mike said. "It's going to be fun getting through that mess alive."
The thought of fighting our way through so many zombies overwhelmed me for a second. Then I noticed how skinny and gaunt they all looked. The zombies looked like skin stretched over skeletons. Their tattered clothes were dark with blood and gore. They were the most frightening looking horde I'd seen so far.
There was a huge warehouse or factory building between us and the airfield, but we could see across the parking lot. There had to be thousands of zombies milling around outside of the moat. I shook my head.
I realized I'd made a mistake while studying the airfield from across the river. The moat was not on our side of the road, but a little more than one lane of the road had been dug up and the dirt and asphalt piled up on the other lane. What I thought was the road was a wide sidewalk. Behind that was a fence. And the fence wasn't nearly as tall as I thought.
I did see a few soldiers on guard in the parking lots and watching the perimeter. We'd have to take them out pretty fast.
"They are so stupid," I muttered. "I bet that moat isn't more than a foot deep and fifteen feet wide at best. They could wade across it so easily."
"Why are they afraid of water?" Jed asked. "It doesn't make sense."
I shrugged. I never really thought about it. They didn't cross water, and that was good enough for me.
"I doubt they are actually afraid of water," I said. "I think it's probably their minds are so burned away that they don't understand it. It looks like a barrier to them or something." I shrugged again. "At least that's the only thing I can figure. They avoid fire, too, but don't seem afraid of it."
I pointed past the moat and chain-link fence. "See those big fire hoses? They're pumping water out of the river to fill the moat through them. Once we cut holes in the fences, then we cut them. I think the moat will empty out pretty fast after that, so we have to find the women and children fast."
"I hear that," Mike said. "The zombie attack force will be following us in. I for one want to be out of there before they arrive to the party."
"Yeah, those fuckers are going to pay for what they did to us," TareBear snarled. "I hope they eat every one of those dicks."
Charlie looked at me with a grin. "That could be taken more than one way."
"Listen up, boys and girls," I said. I looked up and around. "It's almost dark. I can already hear helicopters heading this way."
I paused to study the line of aircraft on the tarmac. It looked like teams were getting helicopters fueled and loaded with munitions for their night patrols. Lots of men were moving in every direction with a sense of urgency. I could see formations of other units, so the ground troops were about to be released for the night. Which meant they'd be jumping on our women for fun and games.
My hands curled into fists at that thought.
"See those three hangers pressed together?" I said, struggling to push dark thoughts from my mind. It was time to stop worrying about what Jenny was forced to endure, and concentrate on rescuing her and the others. "From left to right: the hanger the prisoners are kept, the enlisted mess hall, and the officer's mess hall. The two mess halls appeared to be where they… hooked up with the women after hours. So we have to hit all three to ensure we save everyone."
"Are the soldiers armed after hours, while they are, you know?" TareBear asked.
"No. We've seen them going to their barracks after formation, before going to the mess halls. They aren't armed at that time."
"So," Mike said. "That means there are armories we can raid, too."
"Maybe, but that's not our priority," I said. I stared at the hangers, wondering which one Jenny was inside. "Getting all of the women and children has to be first and foremost on our minds."
Chapter 13
Jenny
The children were upset about not being fed again. Dinner had come and gone, and our cage wasn't given anything but water. A couple of the mothers were giving me dirty looks as they tried to comfort their children. How was I to know it would take Colonel Ritter hours to decide if he'd see me or not.
A hard knock rattled the hangar door. I jumped, spinning to stare at it.
"Your moment of truth has arrived, Jenny," Nicole said. "Don't screw it up. The ch
ildren have to eat."
I bit my tongue and kept my thoughts to myself. After all, she'd looked quite relieved when earlier I gained us all a short reprieve. Okay, maybe a not so short reprieve. It was almost dark and the "party" had already started for the women like Fiona.
PFC Tate hurried over to the door and opened it. My breath caught when a single man entered. I didn't recognize him, but Tate pointed at our cage. He headed straight over.
"Which one of you is Jenny?" he asked.
"I am. Are you taking me to see Colonel Ritter?"
I hurried to the door. He stopped and looked me over. The sergeant didn't look impressed, which kind of rubbed me the wrong way. His name tag said "Glendale" and his rank insignia was Staff Sergeant. He seemed put out. Maybe he had better things to do than play escort to captives. He was the first soldier I'd seen in the hangar that wasn’t dressed to go on a combat patrol. A pistol was his only weapon.
"Yes," he said. "Open the door, PFC."
PFC Tate flipped through the rings on his key ring for a long moment. That gave Sergeants Coleman and Carmichael time to come over. I tried to ignore them, but they stared at me with smirks on their faces.
"We'll be waiting for you, Jenny," Carmichael said. "Don't take too long."
"Shut up," Staff Sergeant Glendale said, giving them a dirty look. "Are you both off-duty?"
"No," Carmichael said.
"Then go back to work," Glendale said. He looked at Coleman. "You're not on duty, so go away."
Both sergeants turned and walked away without argument. They must know SSG Glendale well enough to not challenge him. That said something about Glendale, since most buck sergeants weren't afraid of a staff sergeant.
"Wow," one of the new women in the next cage said.
I was thinking the same thing. He frightened me, but seemed to be one of those hardnosed, by the book kind of soldiers.
"Come on," Glendale said, waving me out of the cage. "I don't have all night."
I stepped out of the cage and turned for the door. As long as he kept his hands to himself, I'd cooperate. The fact he didn't just grab and manhandle me didn't go unnoticed, and I appreciated that small courtesy.